“Out!” Ben growled, the vein in his forehead throbbing as his face reddened.
Beau pushed to his feet. It wasn’t like he hadn’t known this day was coming, but still, it hurt. More than he wanted to admit. His chest burned as his heart felt as though it shrank two sizes thanks to the hatred he witnessed in his father’s eyes.
With a simple nod, he stepped around the table and headed for the door, biting back all of the words he wanted to scream at the very man who made him feel so unwanted.
Before he could get very far, his father’s hand clamped down on his arm painfully hard. Jerking away out of instinct, Beau spun around to face him, his back ramrod straight. He stood right up to his father, nose to nose, ensuring the man knew he wasn’t that young naïve kid he used to be.
What came next was more painful than if his father would’ve just hit him.
“You’re a disgrace, you know that?” Ben rattled, his face red, his eyes shooting lasers of malevolence at Beau. “A damned disgrace. At one time, I thought there was potential. You almost made something of yourself. Obviously, it wasn’t enough for you to ruin that, was it? Now you want to shame this family because you’re a…. a…”
An answering rage built up in Beau, his heart thumping in his chest, his hands balled into fists as he stared back at his father. “What? I’m a what, Dad? Say it.”
Beau wasn’t sure his father could be any more pissed than he was right then. “You’re a fag!”
Clamping his lips shut, he swallowed the words he wanted to say. Instead, Beau nodded his head, completely disgusted with this man whom he had called Dad. The man hadn’t earned the title.
“Get out! And don’t you ever come back!” Ben yelled.
Beau glanced up to see his mother standing in the kitchen doorway, her hand over her mouth, tears streaming down her face. Was she upset that he was gay? Or that his own father was treating him this way? With his mother, he wasn’t sure he would ever know.
Whether she was scared of Ben, or she truly had never much cared for Beau, he just couldn’t tell. Maybe one day he’d have the opportunity to talk to her. But for now, it didn’t matter. She’d never stood up for him a day in his life. He knew today wasn’t going to be any different.
“Don’t come back here!” Ben yelled when Beau turned back to the door. “You’re not welcome here.”
With one hand on the door knob, Beau turned to face his father one last time. “I’ve never been welcome here.”
And with that, Beau opened the door, closing it gently behind him despite the turmoil roiling inside of him. When the door latched, that small click reverberated in Beau’s head.
♂♀
Curtis had just finished having dinner with his wife and they’d been drinking coffee and discussing the new playground that was being built at the church when the phone rang. Without preamble, Lorrie stood from her seat and headed to the phone that was on the wall in the kitchen.
“Hello?” Lorrie greeted whoever was on the phone while Curtis sat at the kitchen table. Watching her closely, Curtis immediately noticed the way her slender shoulders tensed.
“Excuse me!”
Curtis’ ears perked up at the affronted tone of his wife’s voice.
“Mr. Bennett, I don’t have to listen to this! How dare you have the audacity to call my house and insult my family like that!”
Mr. Bennett? It took Curtis a moment to place the name, but then he realized exactly whom Lorrie was speaking to.
Coming up out of his chair, Curtis stalked toward her until she turned to face him, outrage written across her face. Without asking, he held out his hand, a clear gesture that he wanted the phone, and apparently she had listened to all she cared to because she handed it over without incident.
Curtis put the phone to his ear in time to hear, “Your faggot son is responsible for this! Do you understand me? Hell, all of them are probably faggots!”
Curtis cleared his throat, his only warning. “Bennett,” he said firmly. “If you have the nerve to call my house and insult my family, you better understand what you’re asking for.”
“How dare you raise your kids like that!” Ben screamed. “Letting them destroy this town with their sleazy hotel, allowing them to do what they want. Letting them turn my son gay!”
Curtis wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t think through the rage that consumed him. “If that’s how you think it works, then you’re even more ignorant than I originally gave you credit for. Don’t call here again, Bennett.”
“Don’t worry,” Ben screamed, his voice shaking with his rage. “And as for Beau, he’s no longer my son! You can have him. You’ve warped him enough already; it’s your turn to deal with him.”